To Enigma: Study Stress
by The Deceiving Maiden
Summary: Neil and Eva studying for the exams. During this this, Eva reminisce how Neil behaved whenever a big exam was approached them while she's stressed from studying.


**To: Enigma**

 **Message: I hope this satisfies you ;;;**

 **From: KiKi**

 **Wishlist Item: #4 Neil and Eva being friends in college. They can do whatever shenanigans you want them to.**

 **Summary: Neil and Eva studying for the entrance exam for Sigmund Corporation. During this this, Eva reminisce how Neil behaved whenever a big exam was approached them, and how he was behaving now seemed off.**

~.~.~.~.~

 **To Enigma: Study Stress**

~.~.~.~.~

The constant finger tapping across her table was getting on Eva's nerves. At first, she tried to block it out with her hands over her ears as she read over her notes; however, with each passing minute, the sound just continued to irritate her. After finding herself reading over the same line five times now, she finally had enough.

"Can you stop that already!?"

Neil looked up from what he was doing when she slammed her hands onto the table. Pulling his earphones out, he asked, "What?"

"That!" She pointed at his hand in accusation. "That constant tapping...stop it!"

"Oh..." he just realised what he was doing. "My bad."

With a huff, Eva leaned back against her chair and continued with reading over her notes at once. There was a lot to go over for the upcoming exams, and they were given little to no time to study at all. Throughout the entire semester, the professors kept on bombarding them with assessments till they only had less than two weeks to take those stupid exams. There were so many things to cover, yet so little time to go through. They had heard stories from those who couldn't make it in one of those exams, causing them to repeat the course. The marking criteria was so strict that the chance of failure was high for those who were not prepared.

Eva was never the type to go into an exam room unprepared; however, right now, she was so scared on failing. She had worked so hard for all her life, to the point this was her only focus. The very idea of failing and repeating a course unnerved her to no end. If she failed, she had no idea what to do afterwards…

As Eva flipped through the next part of her notes, something was placed in front of her, which made her pull back to find a mug of steaming hot coffee held before her. She looked up to see Neil standing next to her, holding two mugs of coffee while already sipping on one of them.

"You looked like you were about to pull your hair out of your scalp, take a break," he gave her a toast once she took the drink. Eva stared at him as he returned to his seat before she glanced down at her coffee. She watched how the light brown liquid rippled about in the mug for a moment, then she took a sip.

The smooth, warm liquid soothed down her stress, making her sigh in bliss once she had a nice, long drink. She only caught herself doing that when she saw Neil peering at her from across the table, a smirk on his face.

"Shut it," she grumbled before placed the mug down and brushed her hair aside.

"But I didn't say anything?" he teased, earning an eraser flicked at his forehead. "Ow!"

"Serves you right," she huffed before taking another look at her notes. There were still a lot to go through, and being reminded on that made her uneasy again. Looking back up at Neil, the bespectacled young man was already on his phone to play some games.

Something about Neil acting like this on exam days _always_ set Eva off. In all her years knowing him, Neil had always been the type to not care about any work and upcoming exams. He was always doing things at his own pace, and only ever putting everyone he had into cramming at the last minute. Surprisingly though, he always got the top grades at the end. Back in middle school, Eva always found herself competing against Neil for the top in class. Sometimes he came out the top, sometimes she did instead. Really though, thanks to that, it made them turned from rivals to unlikely friends who had been stuck together through thick and thin. It was surprising how they were still together from then to their final year in college, all for the sake of entering Sigmund Corporation together.

How could he be so carefree all the time? Eva never got an answer for that. It really irritated her now that she tried to figure that out again. Here she was stressing over it while he just acted like it was no big deal.

"Neil?"

The brunet looked up when his name was called. "Yeah?"

"You confident in the exams?" Eva took another sip of her coffee, her eyes trained on his. She could see a lot in those eyes, and she knew Neil hated that. Seeing him flinch, Eva watched him quickly push his glasses up in an attempt to hide his unease.

"Yeah, I am. Why?"

"I don't know…" she shrugged. "I'm not that confident myself really. There's just so much to go through." Eva was admitting to her worries, which was unlike her, but she couldn't stop. ""

"Hey, don't give me that," Neil leaned forward to point at her in accusation. "Don't think I don't know, but I have seen you trying to study during breaks. You even just bought fast food just so you don't need to make your own food." He took a quick swig of his coffee, letting out a breath before he went on. "So don't give me that crap on you not being confident. You got this, Eva. You got this more than anyone else."

Once he was done, Neil leaned back, turning away as he continued to drink his coffee. Eva just stared at him, a brow up as she tilted her head.

"How much coffee did you take today to say that kinda stuff."

Neil almost choked on that question and nearly did a spit take. Luck or not, he didn't do all that and just some coffee dribble out of his mouth and into his hand. Eva almost laughed at that.

"Hey! Be considerate that someone this awesome gave you some pep talk!" he snapped, pushing his glasses up again in a fluster. This time Eva really let herself laugh.

"Thanks for the coffee though," she managed to say, raising up the mug to give him a toast. Blinking at that, Neil did the same too.

"Yeah. Now let's kick the exams' butts!" their mugs _clinked_ at that.

With that in mind, they finished their drinks, ending their break as they went back to work together. And this time, Eva caught Neil actually focusing, much to her amusement.


End file.
